Cadre of EJHL products lift Reading Royals to Kelly Cup

Talk to members of a
championship pro hockey team and you’ll inevitably hear the
word chemistry.

Locker rooms are melting pots,
usually with a mixture of New Englanders, Canadians, Midwesterners
and Europeans, among others. Units take shape, often with shared
experiences forming the foundation.

For the Reading Royals, one of
those units was simply known as the “EJHL guys.”

The Royals are champions of the
ECHL after defeating the Stockton Thunder, four games to one, in
the Kelly Cup finals in late May. It was the first championship for
the 12th-year organization, and there was no denying the
contributions of the local guys.

“It was kind of a special
thing for us, with so many New England guys,” said forward
Ian O’Connor (Londonderry, N.H.). “A lot of EJHL guys
and a lot of Hockey East guys. That was a pretty cool piece to our
puzzle.”

O’Connor is a Providence
College product. Teammates T.J. Syner (Springfield, Mass.) and Alex
Berry (Danvers, Mass.) played at UMass, years apart. Another
forward, Barry Almeida (Springfield, Mass.), put in four good years
at Boston College.

All four developed in the
Eastern Junior Hockey League. Syner and Almeida, who are cousins,
played for the Springfield Pics. Berry skated for the Boston Jr.
Bruins and O’Connor for the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs.

Those EJHL playing days are in
the rear-view mirror, but the stories from those locker rooms
endure in today’s locker room.

“I feel like every team
you go to, people reminisce about their past leagues,” said
Syner. “I did the same thing with my USHL buddies. We’d
tell stories and guys would roll their eyes because there’s
only so many of us that played in the ‘EJ’.”

“Lot of laughs along the
way,” said O’Connor. “Guys were busting our
(chops) when they heard that EJHL talk. We all played together at
some point along the way.”

Nobody outside the locker room
was laughing at the Royals once the postseason arrived.

Reading went 46-19-3-4 to earn
the top seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs, charging in after
winning eight of 10 games to close the regular season. Syner and
Almeida, rookies who began the year in the AHL with the parent
Hershey Bears before the NHL returned from the lockout, finished
the regular season both averaging about a point per game in the
ECHL.

“The American league is
obviously a little bit better league,” said Syner.
“Players are better, faster. I think in the ECHL I played
with a little more confidence.”

O’Connor logged a couple
games in the AHL with Worcester in 2011-12 and was signed to a
professional tryout agreement with his hometown Manchester Monarchs
in February. That led to a 17-game stint that saw him score his
first AHL goal and play in the building that was the center of his
hockey world as a youth, the Verizon Wireless Arena downtown.

“That was a dream come
true, to be able to play in that building,” he said.

After handling Greenville in
five games in the first round, they were taken to a Game 7 by
Florida. In the 4-1 finale, Almeida and O’Connor would score
goals, with Syner notching an assist.

“We felt when we played
our game nobody could touch us,” said O’Connor.

They beat Cincinnati in five
games to win the Eastern Conference and dispatched Stockton in five
to win the Kelly Cup. The theme of the postseason was resilience,
with the Royals often coming back from multiple-goal deficits to
win games.

“I’ve never been a
part of so many unbelievable games, comeback games,” said
Syner, who finished third in the ECHL in playoff scoring (9-12-21).
“Our team was so resilient throughout the playoffs. When we
were down a couple goals we wouldn’t give up.”

Syner was on the ice for five of
the six goals in the Cup clincher, a 6-0 win at Stockton in Game 5.
Upon returning home, the team was honored with a championship
parade and rally that saw more than 3,500 inside the Sovereign
Center.

Kelly Cup forever on their
résumés, the New England four will try to stick in
the AHL next season. Syner re-signed with Hershey last month, while
O’Connor guesses he’ll at least open the new season
with Reading.

Berry, the elder statesman among
the local guys, is 27 and was a fifth-round draft pick of the
Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005 before running into some injury issues.
Almeida is a champion for the second year in a row after helping
Boston College win it all as a senior.

Another Hockey East product,
forward David Vallorani out of UMass-Lowell, was the Royals’
second-leading scorer during the regular season with 17 goals and
59 points.

Common backgrounds. And now a
common championship feeling.

“It’s a little
different schedule, for sure, running so late,” said
O’Connor. “I’ve tried to relax the last couple
weeks and now I’m going to hit it hard.

“But this was great. Stuff
you’ll always remember.”

This article originally
appeared in the July 2013 issue of New England Hockey
Journal.